The present disclosure relates to printed circuit boards, and in particular, to non-planar fabricated radio frequency (RF) and microwave printed circuit boards.
Conventional RF and microwave printed circuit boards (PCBs) have layout densities that are typically formed according to a planar fabrication design, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The planar fabrication design creates a PCB 100 where all electrical components 102 for performing a particular electrical function are formed on exterior surface regions 104 of the PCB 100. The layers 106 beneath the exterior surface regions 104, however, are configured to route signal lines, power lines and ground planes. Consequently, the layout of the conventional RF/microwave PCB 100 is limited by the exterior surface area of the board. As a result, the entire surface area of the board must be increased in order to increase the layout density of the overall PCB 100. Further, since the layers 106 of the conventional RF/microwave PCB 100 are used to route signal lines along a constant horizontal plane, the entire layer 102 is formed as a single electrically conductive layer.